ELL News Headlines

School district leaders around the country are taking steps to help their communities process the Hamas attack from the weekend and the ensuing Israeli response.

For the past four years, I served as superintendent of Oxnard School District, located 30 miles up the California coast from Malibu. But unlike Malibu, most of our school district’s 14,000 students come from low-income, Spanish-speaking families. Yet, not all of our Latino families consider Spanish their first or second language. Nearly 500 families reported speaking Mixteco, an Indigenous language of Southern Mexico, which has scores of variants. For a long time, though, Mixteco wasn’t represented in any of our literacy materials, often making it hard for families to read together. 

New research from Gallup and Amazon found mentorship positively impacted young adults in their career outcomes, but professionals from low-income backgrounds were less likely to have those figures in their lives. The report offers three recommendations for potential role models.

Today’s post is the second in an ongoing series offering strategies to support older students experiencing reading challenges.

Teachers, reading specialists and other educators conducting dyslexia screenings should pay particular attention to students’ linguistic backgrounds to avoid over- or under-identification of students whose home languages differ from the language of instruction at school, according to an advisory released Monday by the International Literacy Association. 

An estimated 1,100 children from 20 Native tribes attended the Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School for 17 years. But for many of them, “school” meant forced labor, forced assimilation, and abuse, not real education. At least 31 students died at the school, far from the families that loved them. Tribal members, educators, and advocates around the state say a new report about Fort Lewis is a call for Colorado to do a better job of educating more students about Indigenous history; some have long complained that schools do a mediocre job of teaching the topic, when it happens at all. They also want schools to provide more support — and create a more inclusive environment — for Native students today.

Language diversity has never been more real in classrooms around the world. With globalization comes increased mobility, and the language of instruction may not be the one our students choose when they think; speak to their parents, grandparents, and friends; watch TV; read; and listen to music. Acknowledging our students’ language backgrounds and experiences can be powerful: Not only does it contribute to fostering a sense of belonging, but also it supports learners in building their self-identity and celebrating each other’s differences. The question is: How can we do it in a meaningful and engaging way?

As educators, we want to provide the necessary avenues that young children require to develop into happy, empathetic, kind individuals. Nature is full of awe-inspiring beauty, and we simply need to take advantage of the opportunity of exposing children to its boundless experiences. Nature provokes children into action to formulate their own ideas and self-guided investigations. When children are fully immersed and exposed to experiences with nature, they’re given an open invitation for free adventure.

Audubon Elementary offers several unique options for students including a gardening club and English language learners program.